Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades, the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities, and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups - Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Since 1990, Samsung has increasingly globalised its activities and electronics; in particular, its mobile phones and semiconductors have become its most important source of income. As of 2017, Samsung has the 6th highest global brand value.[4]

Samsung has a powerful influence on South Korea's economic development, politics, media and culture and has been a major driving force behind the "Miracle on the Han River".[13][14] Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea's total exports.[15] Samsung's revenue was equal to 17% of South Korea's $1,082 billion GDP.[16]

Etymology

According to Samsung's founder, the meaning of the Koreanhanja word Samsung (??) is "tri-star" or "three stars". The word "three" represents something "big, numerous and powerful".[17]

History

1938 to 1970

In 1938, Lee Byung-chul (1910-1987) of a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county moved to nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe (?, ?). Samsung started out as a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyo-dong).[18] It dealt in dried-fish,[18] locally-grown groceries and noodles. The company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, he was forced to leave Seoul. He started a sugar refinery in Busan named Cheil Jedang. In 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in Chimsan-dong, Daegu. It was the largest woollen mill ever in the country.[]

Samsung diversified into many different areas. Lee sought to establish Samsung as leader in a wide range of industries. Samsung moved into lines of business such as insurance, securities and retail.

In 1947, Cho Hong-jai, the Hyosung group's founder, jointly invested in a new company called Samsung Mulsan Gongsa, or the Samsung Trading Corporation, with the Samsung's founder Lee Byung-chull. The trading firm grew to become the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation. After a few years, Cho and Lee separated due to differences in management style. Cho wanted a 30 equity share. Samsung Group was separated into Samsung Group and Hyosung Group, Hankook Tire and other businesses.[19][20]

In the late 1960s, Samsung Group entered the electronics industry. It formed several electronics-related divisions, such as Samsung Electronics Devices, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Corning and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications, and made the facility in Suwon. Its first product was a black-and-white television set.[]

1970 to 1990

The SPC-1000, introduced in 1982, was Samsung's first personal computer (Korean market only) and used an audio cassette tape to load and save data - the floppy drive was optional[21]

In 1980, Samsung acquired the Gumi-based Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin and entered telecommunications hardware. Its early products were switchboards. The facility was developed into the telephone and fax manufacturing systems and became the center of Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing. They have produced over 800 million mobile phones to date.[22] The company grouped them together under Samsung Electronics in the 1980s.

After Lee, the founder's death in 1987, Samsung Group was separated into four business groups--Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and the Hansol Group.[23] Shinsegae (discount store, department store) was originally part of Samsung Group, separated in the 1990s from the Samsung Group along with CJ Group (Food/Chemicals/Entertainment/logistics), and the Hansol Group (Paper/Telecom). Today these separated groups are independent and they are not part of or connected to the Samsung Group.[24] One Hansol Group representative said, "Only people ignorant of the laws governing the business world could believe something so absurd", adding, "When Hansol separated from the Samsung Group in 1991, it severed all payment guarantees and share-holding ties with Samsung affiliates." One Hansol Group source asserted, "Hansol, Shinsegae, and CJ have been under independent management since their respective separations from the Samsung Group". One Shinsegae department store executive director said, "Shinsegae has no payment guarantees associated with the Samsung Group".[24]

In 1980s, Samsung Electronics began to invest heavily in research and development, investments that were pivotal in pushing the company to the forefront of the global electronics industry. In 1982, it built a television assembly plant in Portugal; in 1984, a plant in New York; in 1985, a plant in Tokyo; in 1987, a facility in England; and another facility in Austin, Texas, in 1996. As of 2012, Samsung has invested more than US$13,000,000,000 in the Austin facility, which operates under the name Samsung Austin Semiconductor. This makes the Austin location the largest foreign investment in Texas and one of the largest single foreign investments in the United States.[25][26]

Samsung became the world's largest producer of memory chips in 1992 and is the world's second-largest chipmaker after Intel (see Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Market Share Ranking Year by Year).[28] In 1995, it created its first liquid-crystal display screen. Ten years later, Samsung grew to be the world's largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal display panels. Sony, which had not invested in large-size TFT-LCDs, contacted Samsung to cooperate, and, in 2006, S-LCD was established as a joint venture between Samsung and Sony in order to provide a stable supply of LCD panels for both manufacturers. S-LCD was owned by Samsung (50% plus one share) and Sony (50% minus one share) and operates its factories and facilities in Tangjung, South Korea. As of 26 December 2011, it was announced that Samsung had acquired the stake of Sony in this joint venture.[29]

In 2000, Samsung opened a computer programming laboratory in Warsaw, Poland. Its work began with set-top-box technology before moving into digital TV and smartphones. The smartphone platform was developed with partners, officially launched with the original Samsung Solstice[31] line of devices and other derivatives in 2008, and was later developed into Samsung Galaxy line of devices including Notes & Edge and other products. As of 2011, the Warsaw base is Samsung's most important R&D center in Europe, forecast to be recruiting 400 new-hires per year by the end of 2013.[32]

In 2010, Samsung announced a ten-year growth strategy centered around five businesses.[33] One of these businesses was to be focused on biopharmaceuticals, to which has committed ?2,100,000,000,000.[34]

In first quarter of 2012, Samsung Electronics became the world's largest mobile phone maker by unit sales, overtaking Nokia, which had been the market leader since 1998.[36][37] In the edition of the Austin American-Statesman issued on 21 August 2012, Samsung confirmed plans to spend 3 to 4 billion dollars converting half of its Austin chip manufacturing plant to a more profitable chip.[38] The conversion should start in early 2013 with production on line by the end of 2013. On 14 March 2013, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S4.[39]

On 24 August 2012, nine American jurors ruled that Samsung had to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for violating six of its patents on smartphone technology. The award was still less than the $2.5 billion requested by Apple. The decision also ruled that Apple did not violate five Samsung patents cited in the case.[40] Samsung decried the decision saying that the move could harm innovation in the sector.[41] It also followed a South Korean ruling stating that both companies were guilty of infringing on each other's intellectual property.[42] In first trading after the ruling, Samsung shares on the Kospi index fell 7.7%, the largest fall since 24 October 2008, to 1,177,000 Korean won.[43] Apple then sought to ban the sales of eight Samsung phones (Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail) in the United States[44] which has been denied by the court.[45]

On 4 September 2012, Samsung announced that it plans to examine all of its Chinese suppliers for possible violations of labor policies. The company said it will carry out audits of 250 Chinese companies that are its exclusive suppliers to see if children under the age of 16 are being used in their factories.[46]

In 2013, a New Zealand news outlet reported a number of Samsung washing machines spontaneously catching on fire.[47] The corporation is expected to spend $14 billion on advertising and marketing in 2013, with publicity appearing in TV and cinema ads, on billboards and at sports and arts events. In November 2013, the corporation was valued at $227 billion.[48]

In May 2014, Samsung announced it would be shutting down its streaming service on 1 July 2014, also meaning the end of the Samsung Music Hub app that typically comes installed on its Android phones.[49]

In October 2014, Samsung announced a $14.7 billion investment to build a chip plant in South Korea. Construction will begin next year with production beginning in 2017. The company has not yet decided the type of chips to be produced.[51]

In October 2014, Samsung also announced it would invest 633 billion South Korean won ($560 million USD) in the construction of a new 700,000 square metre production complex in Vietnam.[52]

Samsung plans to launch a new set of services beginning early 2015. The goal of this new suite of business offerings, dubbed Samsung 360 Services, is to become a help desk of sorts for businesses IT departments. The customizable services range from technical support to security solutions for having a Samsung employee embedded in a client's business as an on-site support manager or technology consultant.[53]

On 2 December 2014, Samsung announced it will sell Fiber Optics to U.S. speciality glass manufacturer Corning Inc.[54]

Samsung Electronics Inc. is expanding in Silicon Valley with a $300 million facility in San Jose, California. The 10-story complex will include 1.1 million square feet of floor space, a clean room for semiconductors and a "fitness center in the sky". The facility will be split between semiconductor research and development and other sales and marketing functions. It will serve as the North America headquarters for semiconductor operations.[55]

In 2015, Samsung has been granted more U.S. patents than any other company - including IBM, Google, Sony, Microsoft and Apple. The company received 7,679 utility patents through 11 December.[56]

In January 2016, Samsung announced it will be working with Microsoft to develop IoT devices based on Windows 10, where the companies will work together to develop products that will run on the platform, as well as integrate with other companies developing hardware and services on Microsoft's OS.[57]

Samsung released a fitness smartwatch called the Gear Fit 2 and a brand of wireless earbuds called Gear Icon X.[58]

On 2 August 2016, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note7 smartphone,[59] which went on sale on 19 August 2016. However, in early September 2016, Samsung suspended sales of the phone and announced an informal recall. This occurred after some units of the phones had batteries with a defect that caused them to produce excessive heat, leading to fires and explosions. Samsung replaced the recalled units of the phones with a new version; however, it was later discovered that the new version of the Galaxy Note 7 also had the battery defect. Samsung recalled all Galaxy Note7 smartphones worldwide on 10 October 2016, and permanently ended production of the phone the following day.[60][61][62]

On 31 August 2016, Samsung announced the Gear S3 smartwatch, which was released on 18 November 2016.[63]

On 29 March 2017, Samsung unveiled its new Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ flagship smartphones. On 29 August 2017, Samsung announced its Samsung Galaxy Note8 flagship smartphone. These phones were also complemented by a number of low-end and mid-range phones, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active smartphone, in 2017.

On October 12, 2018, Samsung announced its new Galaxy A9 with 4 rear cameras.[64]

On November 8, 2018, Samsung announced a new, revamped software design called One UI.[65]

Acquisitions and attempted acquisitions

This section is missing information about the acquisition of Harman International Industries. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.(November 2016)

Samsung Techwin acquired German camera-maker Rollei in 1995. Samsung (Rollei) used its optic expertise on the crystals of a new line of 100% Swiss-made watches, designed by a team of watchmakers at Nouvelle Piquerez S.A. in Bassequort, Switzerland. Rolex's decision to fight Rollei on every front stemmed from the close resemblance between the two names and fears that its sales would suffer as a consequence. In the face of such a threat, the Geneva firm decided to confront. This was also a demonstration of the Swiss watch industry's determination to defend itself when an established brand is threatened. Rolex sees this front-line battle as vital for the entire Swiss watch industry. Rolex has succeeded in keeping Rollei out of the German market. On 11 March 1995, the Cologne District court prohibited the advertising and sale of Rollei watches on German territory.[67][68] In 1999, Rollei management bought out the company.[69]

Samsung lost a chance to revive its failed bid to take over Dutch aircraft maker Fokker when other airplane makers rejected its offer to form a consortium. The three proposed partners--Hyundai, Hanjin and Daewoo--notified the South Korean government that they would not join Samsung Aerospace Industries.[70]

Samsung bought AST (1994) in a failed attempt to break into the North American computer market. Samsung was forced to close the California-based computer maker following mass resignations of research staff and a string of losses.[71]

In 1992, American fashion entrepreneur Daymond John started the company with a hat collection that was made in the basement of his house in the Queens area of New York City. To fund the company, John had to mortgage his house for $100,000. With his friends J. Alexander Martin, Carl Brown and Keith Perrin, half of his house was turned into the first factory of FUBU, while the other half remained as the living quarters. Along with the expansion of FUBU, Samsung invested in FUBU in 1995.[72]

Samsung Securities was one of a handful of brokerages looking into Lehman Brothers Holdings. But Nomura Holdings has reportedly waved the biggest check to win its bid for Lehman Brothers Holdings' Asian operations, beating out Samsung Securities, Standard Chartered and Barclays.[73] Ironically, after few months Samsung Securities Co., Ltd. and City of London-based N M Rothschild & Sons (more commonly known simply as Rothschild) have agreed to form a strategic alliance in investment banking business. Two parties will jointly work on cross border mergers and acquisition deals.[74]

In December 2010, Samsung Electronics bought MEDISON Co., a South Korean medical-equipment company, the first step in a long-discussed plan to diversify from consumer electronics.[75]

Grandis Inc. - memory developer

In July 2011, Samsung announced that it had acquired spin-transfer torque random access memory (MRAM) vendor Grandis Inc.[76] Grandis will become a part of Samsung's R&D operations and will focus on development of next generation random-access memory.[77]

On 9 May 2012, mSpot announced that it had been acquired by Samsung Electronics with the intention of a cloud based music service.[79] The succeeding service was Samsung Music Hub.

NVELO, Inc. - cache software developer

In December 2012, Samsung announced that it had acquired the privately held storage software vendor NVELO, Inc., based in Santa Clara, California.[80] NVELO will become part of Samsung's R&D operations, and will focus on software for intelligently managing and optimizing next-generation Samsung SSD storage subsystems for consumer and enterprise computing platforms.

NeuroLogica - portable CT scanner

In January 2013, Samsung announced that it has acquired medical imaging company NeuroLogica, part of the multinational conglomerate's plans to build a leading medical technology business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.[81]

On 14 August 2014, Samsung acquired SmartThings, a fast-growing home automation startup. The company isn't releasing the acquisition price, but TechCrunch reported a $200 million pricetag when first caught word of the deal in July 2014.[82]

Quietside - U.S. air conditioner firm

On 19 August 2014, Samsung said it had acquired U.S. air conditioner distributor Quietside LLC as part of its push to strengthen its "smart home" business. A Samsung Electronics spokesman said the South Korean company acquired 100 percent of Quietside, but declined to elaborate on the price or other details.[83]

Proximal Data - data virtualization

3 November 2014, Samsung announced it had acquired Proximal Data, Inc., a San Diego, California-based pioneer of server-side caching software with I/O intelligence that work within virtualized systems.[84]

Samsung Thales

Samsung Thales Co., Ltd. (until 2001 known as Samsung Thomson-CSF Co., Ltd.) was a joint venture between Samsung Techwin and the France-based aerospace and defence company Thales. It was established in 1978 and is based in Seoul.[91] Samsung's involvement was passed on to Hanwha Group as part of the Techwin transaction.[90]

Samsung General Chemicals

Samsung Total

Samsung Total was a 50:50 joint venture between Samsung and the France-based oil group Total S.A. (more specifically Samsung General Chemicals and Total Petrochemicals). Samsung's role was passed on to Hanwha Group when the latter acquired Samsung General Chemicals.[90]

In FY 2009, Samsung reported consolidated revenues of 220 trillion KRW ($172.5 billion). In FY 2010, Samsung reported consolidated revenues of 280 trillion KRW ($258 billion), and profits of 30 trillion KRW ($27.6 billion) (based upon a KRW-USD exchange rate of 1,084.5 KRW per USD, the spot rate as of 19 August 2011[update]).[93] These amounts do not include the revenues from all of Samsung's subsidiaries based outside South Korea.[94]

Affiliates

As of April 2011, the Samsung Group comprised 59 unlisted companies and 19 listed companies, all of which had their primary listing on the Korea Exchange.[95]

Samsung SDS is a multinational IT Service company headquartered in Seoul. It was founded in March 1985. Its principal activity is the providing IT system(ERP, IT Infrastructure, IT Consulting, IT Outsourcing, Data Center). Samsung SDS is the Korea's largest IT service company. It achieved total revenues of 6,105.9 billion won (US$5.71 billion) in 2012.

Samsung Engineering

Samsung Engineering is a multinational construction company headquartered in Seoul. It was founded in January 1969. Its principal activity is the construction of oil refining plants; upstream oil and gas facilities; petrochemical plants and gas plants; steel making plants; power plants; water treatment facilities; and other infrastructure.[102] It achieved total revenues of 9,298.2 billion won (US$8.06 billion) in 2011.[103]

Samsung Fine Chemicals

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance is a multinational general insurance company headquartered in Seoul.[104] It was founded in January 1952 as Korea Anbo Fire and Marine Insurance and was renamed Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance in December 1993.[105] Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance offers services including accident insurance, automobile insurance, casualty insurance, fire insurance, liability insurance, marine insurance, personal pensions and loans.[106] As of March 2011 it had operations in 10 countries and 6.5 million customers. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance had a total premium income of $11.7 billion in 2011 and total assets of $28.81 billion on 31 March 2011. It is the largest provider of general insurance in South Korea. Samsung Fire has been listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange since 1975 (number 000810).[106]

Samsung Heavy Industries

Samsung Heavy Industries is a shipbuilding and engineering company headquartered in Seoul. It was founded in August 1974. Its principal products are bulk carriers, container vessels, crude oil tankers, cruisers, passenger ferries, material handling equipment steel and bridge structures.[107] It achieved total revenues of 13,358.6 billion won in 2011 and is the world's second-largest shipbuilder by revenues (after Hyundai Heavy Industries).[108][109]

Samsung Life Insurance

Samsung Life Insurance Co., Ltd. is a multinational life insurance company headquartered in Seoul. It was founded in March 1957 as Dongbang Life Insurance and became an affiliate of the Samsung Group in July 1963.[110] Samsung Life's principal activity is the provision of individual life insurance and annuity products and services.[111] As of December 2011 it had operations in seven countries, 8.08 million customers and 5,975 employees.[110] Samsung Life had total sales of 22,717 billion won in 2011 and total assets of 161,072 billion won at 31 December 2011.[110] It is the largest provider of life insurance in South Korea.

Samsung Life Insurance is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 032830)

Samsung Machine Tools

Samsung Machine Tools of America is a national distributor of machines in the United States. Samsung GM Machine Tools is the head office of China, It is an SMEC Legal incorporated company.[112]

Samsung Medical Center

The Samsung Medical Center was founded on 9 November 1994, under the philosophy of "contributing to improving the nation's health through the best medical service, advanced medical research and development of outstanding medical personnel". The Samsung Medical Center consists of a hospital and a cancer center. The hospital is located in an intelligent building with floor space of more than 200,000 square meters and 20 floors above ground and 5 floors underground, housing 40 departments, 10 specialist centers, 120 special clinics and 1,306 beds.

The 655-bed Cancer Center has 11 floors above ground and 8 floors underground, with floor space of over 100,000 square meters. SMC is a tertiary hospital manned by approximately 7,400 staff including over 1,200 doctors and 2,300 nurses. Since its foundation, the Samsung Medical Center has successfully incorporated and developed an advanced model with the motto of becoming a "patient-centered hospital", a new concept in Korea.[]

Samsung Securities

Samtron

Samtron was a subsidiary of Samsung until 1999 when it became independent. After that, it continued to make computer monitors and plasma displays until 2003, Samtron became Samsung when Samtron was a brand. In 2003 the website redirected to Samsung.[]

Shilla Hotels and Resorts

Hotel Shilla (also known as "The Shilla") opened in March 1979, following the intention of the late Lee Byung-chull, the founder of the Samsung Group. Hosting numerous state visits and international events, it has played the role of locomotive for the service industry in Korea with pride and responsibility as "the face representing the Samsung Group" and "the hotel representing Korea". Hotel Shilla maintains elegance and a tradition of winning guests' hearts with the aim of becoming "the best hospitality company". By joining LHW, it is on par with the most luxurious hotels in the world. Meanwhile, it has added modernistic design elements on top of the roof called tradition, thus going through changes to make itself a premium lifestyle space. In addition, with its know-how as a service company in the background, it started a duty-free shop business, and has built its image as the best global distribution company. Also, it is expanding its business into commissioned management of fitness facilities with five-star hotels in Korea and abroad as well as into the restaurant business. Hotel Shilla promises to be a globally prestigious hospitality company that offers the best value for money by making creative innovations and continuously taking on challenges.

Shilla Hotels and Resorts is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 008770).

S-1 Corporation

S-1 was founded as Korea's first specialized security business in 1997 and has maintained its position at the top of industry with the consistent willingness to take on challenges. S1 Corporation is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 012750).[]

Joint ventures

State-run Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. set up the venture, aT Grain Co., in Chicago, with three other South Korean companies, Korea Agro-Fisheries owns 55 percent of aT Grain, while Samsung C&T Corp, Hanjin Transportation Co. and STX Corporation each hold 15 percent.[117]

Samsung Biologics will be jointly owned. Samsung Electronics Co. and Samsung Everland Inc. will each own a 40 percent stake in the venture, with Samsung C&T Corp. and Durham, North Carolina-based Quintiles each holding 10 percent. It will contract-make medicines made from living cells, and Samsung Group plans to expand into producing copies of biologics including Rituxan, the leukemia and lymphoma treatment sold by Roche Holding AG and Biogen Idec Inc.[121]

Samsung BP Chemicals, based in Ulsan, is a 49:51 joint venture between Samsung and the UK-based BP, which was established in 1989 to produce and supply high-value-added chemical products. Its products are used in rechargeable batteries and liquid crystal displays.[124][125][126]

Samsung Corning Precision Glass is a joint venture between Samsung and Corning, which was established in 1973 to manufacture and market cathode ray tube glass for black and white televisions. The company's first LCD glass substrate manufacturing facility opened in Gumi, South Korea, in 1996.

Samsung Sumitomo LED Materials is a Korea-based joint venture between Samsung LED Co., Ltd., an LED maker based in Suwon, Korea-based and the Japan-based Sumitomo Chemical. The JV will carry out research and development, manufacturing and sales of sapphire substrates for LEDs.[127]

SD Flex Co., Ltd. was founded on October 2004 as a joint venture corporation by Samsung and DuPont, one of the world's largest chemical companies.[128]

Sermatech Korea owns 51% of its stock, while Samsung owns the remaining 49%. The U.S. firm Sermatech International, for a business specializing in aircraft construction processes such as special welding and brazing.[129]

Siam Samsung Life Insurance: Samsung Life Insurance holds a 37% stake while the Saha Group also has a 37.5% stake in the joint venture, with the remaining 25% owned by Thanachart Bank.[130]

Siltronic Samsung Wafer Pte. Ltd, the joint venture by Samsung and wholly owned Wacker Chemie subsidiary Siltronic, was officially opened in Singapore in June 2008.[131]

SMP Ltd. is a joint venture between Samsung Fine Chemicals and MEMC. MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. and an affiliate of Korean conglomerate Samsung are forming a joint venture to build a polysilicon plant.

Steco is the joint venture established between Samsung Electronics and Japan's Toray Industries in 1995.[132]

Stemco is a joint venture established between Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Toray Industries in 1995.[133]

Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation (TSST) is joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Toshiba of Japan which specialises in optical disc drive manufacturing. TSST was formed in 2004, and Toshiba owns 51% of its stock, while Samsung owns the remaining 49%.

Defunct

In 1998, Samsung created a U.S. joint venture with Compaq--called Alpha Processor Inc. (API)--to help it enter the high-end processor market. The venture was also aimed at expanding Samsung's non-memory chip business by fabricating Alpha processors. At the time, Samsung and Compaq invested $500 million in Alpha Processor.[134]

GE Samsung Lighting was a joint venture between Samsung and the GE Lighting subsidiary of General Electric. The venture was established in 1998 and was broken up in 2009.[135]

Global Steel Exchange was a joint venture formed in 2000 between Samsung, the U.S.-based Cargill, the Switzerland-based Duferco Group, and the Luxembourg-based Tradearbed (now part of the ArcelorMittal), to handle their online buying and selling of steel.[136]

S-LCD Corporation was a joint venture between Samsung Electronics (50% plus one share) and the Japan-based Sony Corporation (50% minus one share) which was established in April 2004. On 26 December 2011, Samsung Electronics announced that it would acquire all of Sony's shares in the venture.

Atlântico Sul

Samsung Heavy Industries owns 10% of the Brazilian shipbuilder Atlântico Sul, whose Atlântico Sul Shipyard is the largest shipyard in South America. The Joao Candido, Brazil's largest ship, was built by Atlântico Sul with technology licensed by Samsung Heavy Industries.[137] The companies have a technical assistance agreement through which industrial design, vessel engineering and other know-how is being transferred to Atlântico Sul.[138]

DGB Financial Group

Samsung Life Insurance currently holds a 7.4% stake in the South Korean banking company DGB Financial Group, making it the largest shareholder.[139]

Rambus Incorporated

Renault Samsung Motors

Seagate Technology

Samsung currently owns 9.6% of Seagate Technology, making it the second-largest shareholder. Under a shareholder agreement, Samsung has the right to nominate an executive to Seagate's Board of Directors.[146]

Sharp Corporation

SungJin Geotec

Samsung Engineering holds a 10% stake in Sungjin Geotec, an offshore oil drilling company that is a subsidiary of POSCO.[148]

Taylor Energy

Taylor Energy is an independent American oil company that drills in the Gulf of Mexico based in New Orleans, Louisiana.[149] Samsung Oil & Gas USA Corp., subsidiaries of Samsung, currently owns 20% of Taylor Energy.

The world's largest oil and gas project, Sakhalin II- Lunskoye platform under construction. The topside facilities of the LUN-A (Lunskoye) and PA-B (Piltun Astokhskoye) platforms are being built at the Samsung Heavy Industry shipyard in South Korea.[151]

Shell unveiled plans to build the world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platform. In October 2012[154] at Samsung Heavy Industries' shipyard on Geoje Island in South Korea work started on a "ship" that, when finished and fully loaded, will weigh 600,000 tonnes, the world's biggest "ship". That is six times larger than the largest U.S. aircraft carrier.[155]

The government of the Canadian province of Ontario signed off one of the world's largest renewable energy projects, signing a deal worth $6.6 billion for an additional of new wind and solar energy. Under the agreement, a consortium led by Samsung and the Korea Electric Power Corporation will manage the development of -worth of new wind farms and of solar capacity, while also building a manufacturing supply chain in the province.[157]

Corporate image

First Samsung logo.

1960s

1970s

1980-1993

1993-2013, though still used by other Samsung companies than its electronics segment.

Audio logo

Samsung has an audio logo, which consists of the notes E?, A?, D?, E?; after the initial E? tone it is up a perfect fourth to A?, down a perfect fifth to D?, then up a major second to return to the initial E? tone. The audio logo was produced by Musikvergnuegen and written by Walter Werzowa.[159][160]

Font

In July 2016, Samsung unveiled its SamsungOne font, a typeface that hopes to give a consistent and universal visual identity to the wide range of Samsung products. SamsungOne was designed to be used across Samsung's diverse device portfolio, with a focus on legibility for everything from smaller devices like smartphones to larger connected TVs or refrigerators, as well as Samsung marketing and advertisements. The font family supports 400 different languages through over 25,000 characters.[161]

Samsung Medical Center

Samsung donates around US$100 million per annum to the Samsung Medical Center, a non-profit healthcare provider founded by the group in 1994.[162] Samsung Medical Center incorporates Samsung Seoul Hospital, Kangbook Samsung Hospital, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Samsung Cancer Center and Samsung Life Sciences Research Center. The Samsung Cancer Center, located in Seoul, is the largest cancer center in Asia.[163]

Samsung Medical Center and pharmaceutical multinational Pfizer have agreed to collaborate on research to identify the genomic mechanisms responsible for clinical outcomes in hepatocellular carcinoma.[]

Sponsorships

A Samsung display in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics

Samsung Electronics spent an estimated $14 billion (U.S.) on advertising and marketing in 2013. At 5.4% of annual revenue, this is a larger proportion than any of the world's top-20 companies by sales (Apple spent 0.6% and General Motors spent 3.5%). Samsung became the world's biggest advertiser in 2012, spending $4.3 billion, compared to Apple's $1 billion. Samsung's global brand value of $39.6 billion is less than half that of Apple.[164]

Financial scandals

In 2007, former Samsung chief lawyer Kim Yong Chul claimed that he was involved in bribing and fabricating evidence on behalf of the group's chairman Lee Kun-hee and the company. Kim said that Samsung lawyers trained executives to serve as scapegoats in a "fabricated scenario" to protect Lee, even though those executives were not involved. Kim also told the media that he was "sidelined" by Samsung after he refused to pay a $3.3 million bribe to the U.S. Federal District Court judge presiding over a case where two of their executives were found guilty on charges related to memory chip price fixing. Kim revealed that the company had raised a large amount of secret funds through bank accounts illegally opened under the names of up to 1,000 Samsung executives--under his own name, four accounts were opened to manage 5 billion won.[165]

Antitrust concerns

"You can even say the Samsung chairman is more powerful than the President of South Korea. [South] Korean people have come to think of Samsung as invincible and above the law", said Woo Suk-hoon, host of a popular economics podcast in a Washington Post article headlined "In South Korea, the Republic of Samsung", published on 9 December 2012. Critics claimed that Samsung knocked out smaller businesses, limiting choices for South Korean consumers, and sometimes colluded with fellow giants to fix prices while bullying those who investigate. Lee Jung-hee, a South Korean presidential candidate, said in a debate, "Samsung has the government in its hands. Samsung manages the legal world, the press, the academics and bureaucracy".[166]

Viral marketing

The Fair Trade Commission of Taiwan is investigating Samsung and its local Taiwanese advertising agency for false advertising. The case was commenced after the Commission received complaints stating that the agency hired students to attack competitors of Samsung Electronics in online forums.[167] Samsung Taiwan made an announcement on its Facebook page in which it stated that it had not interfered with any evaluation report and had stopped online marketing campaigns that constituted posting or responding to content in online forums.[168]

Labor abuses

Samsung was the subject of several complaints about child labor in its supply chain from 2012 to 2015.

In July 2014, Samsung cut its contract with Shinyang Electronics after it received a complaint about the company violating child labor laws.[169] Samsung says that its investigation turned up evidence of Shinyang using underage workers and that it severed relations immediately per its "zero tolerance" policy for child labor violations.

One of Samsung's Chinese supplier factories, HEG, was criticized for using underage workers by China Labor Watch (CLW) in July 2014. HEG denied the charges and has sued China Labor Watch.[170][171]

CLW issued a statement in August 2014 claiming that HEG employed over ten children under the age of 16 at a factory in Huizhou, Guangdong. The group said the youngest child identified was 14 years old. Samsung said that it conducted an onsite investigation of the production line that included one-on-one interviews but found no evidence of child labor being used. CLW responded that HEG had already dismissed the workers described in its statement before Samsung's investigators arrived.[169]

CLW also claimed that HEG violated overtime rules for adult workers. CLW said a female college student was only paid her standard wage despite working four hours of overtime per day even though Chinese law requires ovetime pay at 1.5 to 2.0 times standard wages.[169]

Price fixing

On 19 October 2011, Samsung companies was fined EUR145,727,000 for being part of a price cartel of ten companies for DRAMs which lasted from 1 July 1998 to 15 June 2002. The companies received, like most of the other members of the cartel, a 10-% reduction for acknowledging the facts to investigators. Samsung had to pay 90% of their share of the settlement, but Micron avoided payment as a result of having initially revealed the case to investigators.[172]

In Canada, during 1999, some DRAM micro chip manufacturers conspired to price fix, among the accused included Samsung. The price fix was investigated in 2002. A recession started to occur that year, and the price fix ended; however, in 2014, the Canadian government reopened the case and investigated silently. Sufficient evidence was found and presented to Samsung and two other manufacturers during a class action lawsuit hearing. The companies agreed upon a $120 million agreement, with $40 million as a fine, and $80 Million to be paid back to Canadians who purchased a computer, printer, MP3 player, gaming console or camera from April 1999 to June 2002.[173]

2018 Samsung fat-finger error

On 8 April 2018 in the 2018 Samsung fat-finger error the company mistakenly issued a huge sum of money to employees in a stock ownership plan. The error disrupted the Korean finance market.